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Vikaas Gutgutia Founder & MD Ferns N Petals

Luxurious & designer affair: From conceptualising to execution, we have taken a new leap in creating designer weddings with JJ Valaya, Tarun Tahiliani, Robert Koene or Preston Bailey. Their expertise lies in design and décor concepts. Such mega projects require a lot of customisation, minute detailing and cost analysis.

Event factor: Our specialisation lies in destination and designer weddings, social events in India and abroad like Dubai,

Istanbul, Thailand, Udaipur, Jaipur, Spain, Bali, Malaysia. A lot of wedding-related exhibitions and awards are being organised by various companies round the year like ICWF, WOW awards, EEMA, and WFM. Such events are a great platform for building connections, knowledge sharing and meeting industry experts.

New initiatives: We have been doing Wedding Fraternity Meet since 2012, which brings the entire wedding industry under one roof to exchange ideas and business opportunities. Season 4 of WFM is in September and we plan to take it to the next level.

Amit Saroj Director Attitude Events, Gurgaon

Team spirit: Every time you do a great event, the probability of getting a referral for the next one goes up. Sustained relationships sell easily to stay ahead in a competitive environment.

Tech support: We are stronger in the development sector and have strong credentials to offer in global meetings in India. Technologically, we offer CVENT, an expensive options for best management practices.

Bigger & Better: We have an average of about 60 events a year, big and small included. We are strong in the development sector and medical associations sector.

Digital presence: We are implementing new on-site version for registrations on the integrated platform. We should be launching an extensive outreach plan this year.

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Vaishali Dar

As MICE gains momentum, event organisers are luring large business groups with the latest technology, stylish designs,

cutting-edge venues, quality service and new ideas. The range of events is vast, going from small community projects

and conferences to mega events. A few organisers share what they bring to the customer. Excerpts:

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Naveen Rizvi Executive Director TUI-Meetings & Incentives & ICE–Integrated Conference & Event Management

Unique offers: We have world-class softwares that enable delegates to do online registration, hotel booking, tours bookings and can share automated receipts as well. Our team of skilled personnel brings rich resource of information and experience of handling events.

Conventions: Our major conventions handled include Adasia 2011, 11th

International Rotavirus

Symposium, Pravasi Bhartiya Divas 2014 and 2015 and many more. The conferences span across different cities and relate to different sectors. We are capable of handling conventions up to 8,000 delegates.

Contribution to MICE: Whether it is a gala dinner or an award function, events form an integral part of MICE. We have recently handled a conference and award function for 150 people in Prague. The accommodation was arranged at Intercontinental Prague and the conference included keynote sessions, award function, networking dinner on Day 1. On Day 2, we arranged sightseeing tour of Prague including a vintage tram ride. The highlight was a gala dinner organised in an ancient castle of the city replacing the normal hotel room banquet space. The location was spectacular and the guests thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Viraf Sarkari Director Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon

Trends and expertise: What gives an edge to an event is how creatively an event is presented to its audience. The success is the recall of the event. In today’s market, it is imperative to completely understand the vision of the client and deliver an event beyond the expectation of the guest. We are a technically very superior venue with life size LED walls that create a 3D effect. You can never find the technology and production elements fitted in KOD anywhere else.

Cost factor: We have to strike a balance between clients’ budget

and our offering. KOD is apt for convention lunches and dinners, as it reflects culture and cuisine of India. An ideal venue for launches, award nights, and celebratory events, we specialise in all kinds of conventions – corporate, education, human resource, sports.

Contribution to MICE: Corporates approach us for live entertainment along with state-of-the-art technical facility fitted inside the auditorium. The expectations are to give the guest and international conferences flavours of Indian tradition and hospitality with world-class technology.

Prashant Alreja Managing Director Olive 9 Events, Delhi

Personal, yet professional: Organising an event is all about striking the perfect balance between the various facets of the task. You have to be as well-thought about the décor, as about where to put your backstage items. Ideas sell. If you can make them see what you have in your mind, you’ve got the job! The competition is intense because everybody wants the best for the least. The differentiating factor is your ability to keep yourself updated and constantly innovate. Olive 9 Events has a unique concept of India’s state-specific decor. A personalised theme journey for different parts of the country. We majorly organise corporate events, weddings and embassy events. In an era of increasingly social and interactive business, each event acts as a chain towards more business and holistic growth of different industries involved in it. From the point of view of the hospitality and event management industry, it would be good to see the corporate to have more systematic budget allocations for their events and give sufficient time for planning and execution.

Abdul Nasir Ahmed Shaikh Director of Operations, Renaissance Mumbai Hotel Convention Centre Hotel

Innovation is critical: The way people work is changing, and the company is transforming to meet experiences with engaging technology, flexible workspace to inspire collaboration, and creative solution for meeting planners. Keeping the same in mind, Renaissance Mumbai

has launched two Marriott International initiatives – Meetings Imagined and R.E.N Meeting Expert. Meetings Imagined is an approach to selling and planning meeting process, to be more visual, social and purposeful. The website collaborates consumers to share sets of favourite ideas in different languages: Chinese, Russian, French, Spanish and German. R.E.N Meeting Expert app places meetings management for planners. Hotel staff can enhance the services before, during and after events in a manner appealing to today’s mobile planners. Here multiple planners can request and review responses to ensure their events’ success. Our team executes flawless experiences with an intent for guests to return.

Sanjeev Pasricha CEO, Destination Direkt C S Direkt Group, Gurgaon

Methodic approach: We executed ‘Canon Leadership Summit 2015’ (CLS) in Thailand with Canon’s top management team this year. We exclusively selected a hotel to give a feel of traditional Thai hospitality. There was business conference followed by dance act of Russian group and the evening rounded off with style and élan. C S Direkt provides the best projection of services, meeting comfort zone of delegates, singled out everyone’s preferences professionally. Hence, the ROI for this event was ascertained based on the concept and services which were proposed to the client and mutually agreed upon. As there is no alternative, when it comes to the best, we had done a research extensively on the destination Thailand, to provide our clients the best offers and facilities. The end result was an event which gave our delegates a feeling of something new and contemporary, even though it was executed in an oft repeat destination, Thailand.

Mallika Chatterjee Director of Sales & Marketing JW Marriott Pune

Innovative meetings: A Marriott Certified Event Manager is assigned to plan and execute the event. Based on the purpose of the meeting, the event manager provided innovative solutions for F & B options, event technology, room set-ups and experiences. This enables the planning process to be more visual, social and purposeful. On the day of the event the meeting planner was given access to our Meeting Services App called The JW Concierge. This is a real time application, which meeting planners can use during their event. If they require anything while their event is going on, all they have to do is input it into the app. JW Marriott Pune is the biggest wedding and MICE hotel in the city with 40,000 sq ft of convention spaces and 13,000 sq ft of banqueting, encompassing the biggest pillar less banquet spaces in the city. Since the time of its inception, the hotel has made itself the first preference for the most elite weddings, conventions and conferences in the city. Also, with eight meeting rooms and 12 breakaway rooms, the hotel has put Pune on the MICE map of the city. The hotel has eight F&B outlets, which offer cuisines from different parts of the world.

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Sallie Coventry Portfolio Director ibtm events

Cut-throat competition: A successful event is possible with a great team of likeminded people and to take on board client’s feedback. This insight ensures to provide the best customer experience and ROI for participation. Each event has a fully integrated knowledge and social networking calendar, very meaningful for closed-door events.

New initiatives: 2015 saw the very first closed show events take place for ibtm Arabia and America. This is a

dynamic take on a traditional tradeshow, focusing on exclusivity, quality over quantity and creating the ultimate experience for buyers and exhibitors. Following the incorporation of ICOMEX into the ibtm portfolio last year, this year we are set to deliver our first ICOMEX as Reed Exhibitions. We have confirmed that a number of key learning principles will underpin each of our sessions delivered as part of the global knowledge programme. A focus on choice, impact of learning environments and uniqueness of content will be primary areas of importance that will accommodate the audiences in each show.

Kunal Rai Events – Head Tamarind Global

Entertainment and cost: Artists perform at our events from diverse spheres and vocations give us an edge over the competition. The cost of an event depends entirely on the inclusions required and the budget of the client. However, being able to give value add to a client within the said budget

is a USP, which is a trade mark as far as we are concerned.

Events: With the rebranding of Tamarind Tours Pvt Ltd to Tamarind Global in 2015, we undertake turnkey projects with end-to-end solutions, from finalising destinations, venues, concept and logistics to overseeing the event till the end. We do all kinds of corporate events from off-sites, conferences and social events like weddings, anniversaries. Corporates wish to include the interactive bit and the fun quotient to make the meet a learning experience with fun- filled moments. Every event has a portion of MICE, and every MICE movement has a portion of an event built in it.

S D Nandakumar Head Special Interest Tours Tour Operating – Kuoni India

Unique experience: Creating and designing an event that excites clients, agreeing to the look, style, format and positioning for the event, evaluating and selecting the best ideas, giving a theme to the event, setting objectives are various criteria that go into organising an event. To cater to the unique requirements of corporate travellers, SOTC Corporate Tours division offers designed deals for enhancing their travel experience. We offer products for every budget segment with focus on best in class services and pricing strategy.

Great planning: We assist at every stage of planning an event including pre-tour familiarisation visits, gala dinners, collateral preparation, technical back up. To cater to the unique requirements of corporate travellers, Kuoni offers packages and deals for enhancing MICE traveller’s experience. Apart from introducing new MICE destinations, we have been adding new experiences to preferred MICE destinations enabling us to tap this growing travel segment.

Rishi Narain Founder & Managing Director Rishi Narain Golf Management

Organising events: It involves a complete supply chain operation. Right from the conceptual stage of an event, we ensure to have the right delegates, experts, exhibitors, interactive opportunities, a great website, well thought out conference topics, proper

feedback mechanism and classy social networking opportunities – these make the difference.

Technical know-how: Organising sports related events especially in the domain of golf for more than 15 years now, we stay attuned to current technology trends and to use them to enhance events.

Special conventions: We have

organised The India Golf Expo with delegates attending from over 15 countries and speakers from across the world. The 2015 edition, held in Gurgaon, was a success, and we expect more in 2016 edition. A key driver for a successful event of this scale is to bring in domain experts as speakers and ensuring participation from all leading brands in the industry.

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